Jupiter Winds

by C. J. Darlington

  What was this place?

  “Over here,” the guard said.

  Was she being led to her death? She felt like an animal caught in a cruel trap. She could feel the skin around her ankle oozing, and Rin labored to keep pace with the soldiers and Dana.

  She was just beginning to like Dana too.

  They marched past the cell blocks to where several military personnel sat at tables eating or playing card games. The soldiers eyed them. Dana’s back stiffened at their stares, but her escorts didn’t linger. Instead, they walked Rin and Dana straight through the room and down a dark corridor. At an unmarked door, the first guard swiped his hand across a reader. Swinging it open, he waved them inside.

  Rin hesitated but was quickly pushed forward into a cold, white room. She found herself squinting under glaring lights. Goose bumps quickly popped up on her arms.

  One wall had shelves packed with an assortment of medical supplies and instruments—bandages, tape, bottles of pills, and small vials of liquid. Several stainless-steel examination tables lined the center of the room. Without sheets or mattresses, she shivered at the thought of lying on one of them. Was this a morgue or a hospital? Dangling under the tables, Rin caught sight of thick, canvas restraints.

  Across the room a huddle of Mazdaar uniforms were talking. Rin couldn’t make out their words, but she saw Dana eyeing the tall woman with the spiky blonde hair in the center. General Evangeline Yurkutz turned toward them, and Rin tried to force down her boiling hatred at the sight of her. This woman had tortured Grey and manipulated Dad. Had the woman’s eyes widened slightly when she saw Dana?

  Flexing her fingers behind her back to try and regain some feeling, Rin wondered what Grey had first felt when she faced her. Even outside the zones, everyone knew of Yurkutz, but seeing her face-to-face was terrifying.

  With a snap of her fingers, Yurkutz ordered all but one of her drone guards out of the space, and before Rin knew it she was alone with the drone, Dana, and her mother in the creepy medical room.

  “I brought you a present,” Dana said, tilting her head toward Rin.

  Yurkutz searched her daughter with those weird, yellow eyes. “Six years,” she said.

  Dana lifted her chin. “Yes, I’m all grown up.”

  “Scan her,” the general ordered the drone.

  As if expecting the move, Dana spread her legs and raised her arms as the drone approached, waving its hands over her body. They were probably equipped with weapon-detecting sensors.

  Dana’s eyes remained fixed on her mother.

  “Clear,” the drone said.

  Dana dropped her arms. “There’s no way they’ll stay in hiding if you’ve got both of their children.”

  Yurkutz approached Rin.

  “Where is my sister?” she demanded, refusing to allow herself to be afraid.

  The woman glanced at Dana. “You could learn something from these Alexanders. They are loyal to a fault.” Grabbing Rin by the chin, she towered over her. “Your sister learned the hard way what happens to those who resist me.”

  Rin gritted her teeth. “What have you done to her?”

  Yurkutz’s fingernails dug into Rin’s face as she turned toward Dana. “She will be useful.”

  “Mother, I—”

  The general let Rin go and swung around abruptly to Dana. “You, however . . .” She gave her daughter another long, scrutinizing look-over. “Do you honestly think you can come back to me as if nothing happened? They’ve poisoned you for my purposes.”

  Dana took in a deep breath. “I never believed them.”

  After everything her parents and Mrs. March had done, how could Dana say that? How could she have fooled all of them?

  “I won them over. They trusted me. I can take you to them.”

  “I already know where they are.”

  What?

  Dana paused. “Their forces are next to nil, their defenses minimal.” She squared her shoulders. “Mother, I can help you defeat Yien.”

  General Yurkutz smiled, and Rin’s blood chilled.

  ***

  The assembly took place in the main gallery, the first room Grey had seen when she’d entered her mother’s foreign world. Five of the cylindrical lanterns containing the fiery liquid hung from the walls, their glow bright enough to create the illusion of sunlight and reveal stalactites hanging from the ceiling far above them.

  Mom followed Grey’s stare to the nearest lantern. “They’re fueled with water.”

  “Water?”

  “Not like Earth’s. There’s a petroleum element in its composition. We have to filter it to drink it. Takes getting used to, I know. Everything about this planet does.”

  Grey wanted to ask her about the Tasmanian wolves again and the mighty wind gusts, but the meeting was about to start. As everyone’s eyes turned toward her, Grey felt their suspicion. Did they think she was with Mazdaar like Lee?

  “I’ll wait over there.” She pointed toward the far wall where she could melt into the background. Her arm throbbed, and she still felt sick to her stomach over the idea of human bodies being turned into drones.

  “Stay with me,” Mom said.

  It was as much a command as any Mom had given Pierce. Grey edged closer to her mother. Together they walked up to a table at the front. Pierce finger-whistled, and the rumble of conversation instantly ceased. It looked like every one of the fifty people living in this place had shown up. Some appeared as old as Mrs. March; a few were just children. Had all of the adults once been Mazdaar prisoners?

  Captain Sue Alexander took a deep breath and visually swept the crowd. She held up her hand as the group asked a volley of ricocheting questions. “Please, let me say something first. Then I will answer everything.”

  Mom wrapped her arm around Grey, and she leaned against her, glad for her support. It still hadn’t fully sunk in that her mother was alive.

  “Many of you have heard me speak of my children,” her mother began. “The hope of seeing them again has kept me going every day for the past five years. Today, one of my prayers was answered when God sent my oldest daughter, Grey, into our camp.”

  A collective murmur spread through the cavern.

  “She has been a prisoner of Mazdaar,” Mom continued. “They were using her to find Tanner and me.” She went on to explain everything Grey had said about seeing her father on a conference screen, her time in Mazdaar City, General Yurkutz, and her journey to Jupiter. When Mom got to the part about the other prisoners and what Lee had revealed about their bodies being used to create drones, the group fell silent.

  “They could be on their way to kill us now!” someone exclaimed.

  Grey studied the stone floor, not wanting to meet anyone’s eyes. Her very presence here was putting this whole group in danger. And once Mazdaar got what they wanted out of Dad, he was as good as dead too. He was willing to risk everything to save her, and Grey hated it.

  The medic, Sharayah, pushed her way up to the front. “So what are our options?”

  As far as Grey was concerned there was only one. She pictured the faces of the men and women on the Genesis flight—Paul and his lofty plans, the young couple in love, and every other person who’d boarded the ship hoping for adventure and a new life on Jupiter. They’d bought Mazdaar’s lie, but they didn’t deserve to die. No one did. Not even Lee.

  “We can either pull out,” Mom said, “or launch a rescue.”

  “They have five squadrons,” Pierce said, stepping forward. “Not good odds for sure, but we know the landscape. They do not.”

  “We wouldn’t have a chance!”

  Grey swung around at Finley’s booming voice. He pointed a thick finger at her mother’s chest. “You’d risk every one of our lives for the minuscule chance of rescuing your husband?”

  Pierce stepped in between Finley and Mom. “We’re talking about over eighty prisoners.”

  Shoving the older man away, Finley’s hands balled into fists. “I don’t care who we’re talking about! I
’m not throwing my life away because of—”

  “Enough!” Mom’s command rang through the room. Grey remembered a time when she and Rin had been bickering and Mom had intervened, forcing them to apologize and make up.

  Her mother—the woman who bore her, who’d recited those verses before bed and tucked them in every night—she didn’t exist anymore, did she? Today Grey realized she was meeting her mother, her real mother, for the first time.

  Grumbling turned to angry shouting, and the crowd pressed in. Even with every one of them, they’d barely make just one squadron. And they were all human. Mazdaar had inanimate drones that could keep fighting even when maimed.

  Pierce stepped closer to Mom, the lanterns reflecting off his glasses. He’d been the voice of reason in the woods when Finley had wanted to kill her and Lee, and Mom seemed to respect him.

  “I need everyone’s attention . . . now!” Mom clapped, and the room instantly quieted. Her eyes closed for a moment. When she opened them again, she looked straight at Grey. “I said we have two possible courses. I didn’t say which one we are going to take.”

  Finley’s broad chest heaved in and out, like he was ready for a fight, but he seemed to get hold of himself and at least listen to his superior.

  Mom shook her head. “I know we would be risking everything to launch a rescue. I can’t ask you to do that with our small numbers.”

  Grey stared at her mother.

  “Everyone be ready to move out by nightfall, and we’ll get as much distance between us and Orion settlement as we can.”

  “Wait. Mom, what are you saying?”

  Sue Alexander reached for Grey. “Please listen to me. This isn’t what I want. But I have to think of my duty to these people. I can’t unnecessarily risk their lives any more than I can yours.”

  Panic bubbled inside her, and Grey searched for someone, anyone in the crowd who would take her side. “This isn’t just about my father,” she pleaded with them all. “Eighty people will die if we don’t do something!”

  “Yeah, and fifty of us’ll die if we try!” a woman from the crowd shouted.

  Grey attempted to infuse her voice with sympathy. She held up her wrists, hoping the others would see the marks from the shock cuffs. “I was a Mazdaar prisoner too. If we allow them to do this, we might as well surrender and join them, because we’ll be just as bad. We’ll be—”

  “Grey, that’s enough.” Mom pulled her aside, away from the front.

  She twisted out of her mother’s grasp. “Don’t you care about Dad?”

  “I love him just as much as you do.” Sue Alexander’s eyes were moist. “But we don’t have a chance against that many.”

  “We have to try!”

  “I’ll lose both of you if we go.” Mom rested her hand on Grey’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry, but we can’t save him. Do you really think he’d want us to try?”

  “What about the others? They’re all gonna die.”

  “And so will you, me, and everyone here.” Her mother squeezed her shoulder with each word.

  “He’s there because of me.” Grey almost crumpled from the weight of the guilt. All these years, all this time, and she was going to lose Dad all over again. She tried to control herself as her mother dismissed the people with the order to prepare for movement. Mom walked her outside the cave where the clatter of preparations dimmed. When it was just the two of them, Mom tried to hug her.

  Grey stiffened. Mom and all these people were giving up on Dad and allowing Mazdaar to win. Innocent people were going to suffer. Then Grey suddenly clung to her mother. Up until now, Mazdaar had stolen everything from her, but at least she had her mom again.

  “It is not your fault, and your father would never want you to think that,” Mom whispered into her hair.

  Grey lifted her eyes toward the buttes surrounding them, remembering how many times she and Rin had wondered how they would make it on their own. She pictured her little sister looking up to her, never doubting she’d protect them. When she was with Rin, Grey always found a way.

  “I can’t just leave those people.”

  “You don’t have a—”

  “Yes, I do.” She pulled away, desperate to find understanding on her mother’s face.

  Before her mother could respond, a blast of wind surged over them like a wave. Grey saw hundreds of swirling dust devils swerving first one way, then the other, intersecting and mingling into a massive maelstrom.

  “Cover your eyes!” Mom said above the roar, pulling Grey into the shelter of the doorway.

  Grey did, but she inhaled a cloud of dust before she could protect her mouth. She coughed violently. “What . . . causes it?” Grey finally managed. She risked a peek outside and couldn’t see the buttes anymore through the swirling dirt and sand.

  “Probably the gases above the clouds, but we don’t know for sure,” her mom shouted.

  Then, just like in the woods, the air currents ceased as abruptly as they began. Grey coughed again, then stepped back outside and watched the dust settle. Any tracks they’d made would now be obliterated.

  She heard a deep rustling and glanced up as the sky suddenly darkened and a huge shadow passed overhead.

  “Get back.” Mom yanked her into the doorway again.

  “What is it?”

  Her mother pointed, and a huge black bird dove toward where she’d been standing.

  Grey had seen condors in the Preserve with nine-foot wingspans, but the size of this bird—if it could even be called that—left her speechless. Its body alone was larger than the boulder marking their silo entrance.

  “Their wingspan can be over twenty-five feet,” Mom said. “And they prey on anything that moves. Luckily, we don’t see them often. Only after the winds.”

  The gigantic raptor swooped past, darkening the cave entrance even as several more dove from the clouds. They flew together in formation, banking first one way, then the other, searching the ground for their next meal.

  Grey leaned closer to Mom. Long after the flock was gone, they remained huddled in the safety of the doorway.

  “I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I don’t try to help those people,” Grey finally said.

  Mom let out a long breath. “You are your father’s daughter,” she said softly. With a sigh she pulled a radio from her belt. “Pierce, I need you out here.”

  He immediately appeared along with two others and gave Mom a small salute.

  “Take her to lockup,” Mom said, gesturing to her daughter.

  Grey jumped back. “What?”

  “It’s for your own good.”

  The men surrounded Grey.

  Sue Alexander backed away, wiping at her eyes. “Do not hurt her.” Then to Grey she said, “I can’t lose you again, sweetheart.”

  * * *

  Chapter 33

  Where is my sister?” Rin asked, trying to keep her voice from quavering.

  General Yurkutz didn’t even look at her.

  With her arms still tied behind her back, Rin took a step toward her and Dana. Instantly, the drone grabbed her by the hair. Rin yelped in pain.

  “Let her go,” the general ordered, and the drone obeyed.

  For a moment, all Rin could hear was the pounding of blood in her head as she tried to stand steady in front of Yurkutz, the woman who’d ripped her family away from her. She knew it made her look weak to cry, and she fought it with all she had.

  “What have you done to her? I have to know.”

  “Do you now?” The Mazdaar general laughed, and Dana joined in. “Look around you, Alexander girl. You are alone, just as your sister was.”

  Was? Oh, dear God, please.

  Yurkutz seemed to regard Rin for a moment, one eyebrow piqued and both hands on her hips. “If you must know,” she said in a mocking tone. She shoved Rin across the cold floor toward the steel tables. “Then you shall.”

  “Is she dead?”

  “She might wish she was.”

  Rin tried to ward of
f mental images of her sister being shocked or worse, but as they approached the closest examination table, fear locked her limbs in place. She could pretend to be brave, but she’d heard what Mazdaar did to prisoners.

  She tried not to look at the restraints under the table, but her eyes were glued to them. Yurkutz was right. There were some things worse than death.

  The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

  Yurkutz pushed her up against the steel table, and the edge caught Rin in the stomach. She braced against it. She wasn’t going down without a fight. Had Grey been able to withstand the torture for long?

  Breath tickled her ear. “Watch and learn, girl.”

  A double door flew open, and several medics marched in carrying a limp man by the arms and legs. He was naked, and Rin averted her eyes in embarrassment.

  Twisting her chin, General Yurkutz forced her to look. “I said watch.”

  The medics brought the man over to the table. With one quick movement, they threw him up onto the steel slab with a thud. She focused on his face and unseeing eyes, swallowing down her gag reflex. When she saw the singed hair on his dark chest, she realized how the man had died.

  “I present to you Captain Victor Hertzog.” With one finger, Yurkutz roughly lifted one of the man’s eyelids, then the other.

  Rin’s stomach turned. Once in the Preserve she and Grey had come across a dead antelope the vultures were devouring, but Grey had made her turn away. That was the closest thing to a dead body she’d ever seen.

  “This man is an example to many.”

  “What did he do?” Dana asked, and Rin noticed she had taken a step away from the table. Rin wished she could too. The dead man’s foot was inches from her.

  Yurkutz waved toward the body. “He defied us. Defied me.”

  She snapped her fingers, and two bulky drones entered. Between them walked a white-haired African man with sunken eyes. A raw scrape discolored his forehead.

  “Ah, Dr. Lenoir!” Spinning on her heels, the general greeted him with a sneer.

  The hunched man stopped in his tracks, causing the drones to bump into him. They latched onto his arms and dragged him across the room. He shook out of their grasp when he got to Yurkutz.